Historical Highlights

Rich History

The Canopy Realtor® Association has a rich history that parallels the growth of the Charlotte region. 

The Association has had a variety of names since its founding in May 1921. The same is true for its wholly owned subsidiary, Canopy MLS. For that reason, both are referred to mainly as “the Association” and “the MLS” in these highlights.

For a more in-depth historical look at the Association and its entities, you’re invited to read our digital magazine titled “Canopy Through the Decades: Discover 100 Years of History.”

1920s

Charlotte was a textile and banking center in the early 1920s, with about 100 trains coming through the city each day. About 62,000 lived in the city and nearby towns. 

The Association began as the Charlotte Board of Real Estate on May 18, 1921, or May 8, 1921, based on different accounts. The Association uses the May 18 date as the official one. The Association received its charge from the National Association of Realtors® on July 11, 1921.

Founding members read like a Who’s Who of Charlotte real estate development in the early 1900s. Among them: F.C. Abbott (first president), F.E. Harlan, O.J. Thies, E.C. Griffith, W.S. Alexander, J.B. Alexander, Lee Kinney.

Some Association real estate practices, accepted and legal in the early 1920s, seem startling today. One example is establishing binding commission sales rates on members, which the Association did on March 15, 1922. Today setting commission rates is illegal.

When the first movie theater came to Charlotte in the early 1920s, the Association found the site and formed a corporation to sell stock for construction.

An MLS began in the fall of 1923 but failed within the coming year for reasons lost to posterity.

The first female member, Helen Hoyle, joined in 1923. 

1930s

During the Great Depression, “fully ten millions (in dollars) of property was foreclosed (on) in Charlotte,” said F.C. Abbott, the Association’s first president.

By 1936, the Association had grown to 44 members and seven associate members. 

Standardization of credit standards in the mid-1930s discriminated against minority and blue-collar areas, which were rated “undesirable.”

1940s

When the U.S. entered World War II, home building dropped precipitously in Charlotte. Only 225 new houses for war-related workers were built from late 1941 through 1945.

During the war, Realtors® worked with the Charlotte Chamber to acquire housing for military officers and their families who worked locally at Morris Field, a quartermaster operation.

In the late 1940s, the Dunaway brothers, Sonny and Kemp, said a good house could be built for $10 a square foot and sold for a profit.

Charlotte’s real estate market began to grow in the late 1940s as veterans from WWII could obtain 100 percent mortgage loans and other buyers received attractive loan rates as well.

After opposing zoning in the 1930s, the Association supported the city’s first zoning ordinance in 1947. 

1950s

The MLS was reborn successfully in 1950 and called “The Multiple” by most members. 

Ten Realtors® put up $100 each to start the MLS, and the Association set up an office in Latta Arcade uptown.

The Multiple consisted of notebooks updated weekly with mimeographed pages. Photos were added late in the decade.

The Association had an estimated 60 members in 1950.

Suburban living took off in this decade, a nationwide trend spurred by widespread use of cars. 

Vane Mingle became the Association’s first executive officer in 1957, the same year North Carolina adopted a licensing requirement to sell real estate.

The Realtor® of the Year Award began late this decade.

1960s

In 1961, Phil Alexander became executive officer and members sold a record $12 million in listings. 

The Association sponsored “Ole Timers” celebrations for past presidents, held dressy dances and luncheons and hosted a popular annual family picnic at the Red Fez Club on Lake Wylie.

The Association supported the city’s anti-blockbusting ordinance.

Most Realtors® backed urban renewal, which destroyed the African American neighborhood of Brooklyn in Second Ward. 

The Association gained its 500th member in 1966.

Daniel Hennigan became the first African American member in 1967. 

Association leaders initially opposed federal fair housing laws that came into being with Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, but once the law passed, accepted it.

In 1968, the Association added a nondiscrimination clause to the MLS agreement.

The Association began construction on its first headquarters building in 1968 and was slated to move in a year later. It was a one-story building at Third and McDowell streets.

1970s

The housing market slowed in 1974 with the onset of a recession and 20 percent interest rates.

The Association invested in its own equipment to print bi-weekly MLS listing books beginning in 1972 and four years later added a computer to work in conjunction with the equipment. The books began as loose-leaf binders and shifted to bound books in 1975.

The Mingle School of Real Estate began in 1972.

In 1973, closed MLS sales exceeded $100 million for the first time.

1974 President Charles Ritch gave the Realtors® Political Action Committee its first big push at the Association.

Jackie Kiser became the first woman to serve as president in 1976. 

In the mid-’70s, builder John Crosland and Realtor® Allen Tate formed a “Joint Committee” of Realtors® and builders to lobby on behalf of the local housing industry. The organization became the Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition in 1982.

In 1977, the Association moved to a bigger building that it bought at 1356 East Morehead Street. Membership reached 1,010 that year.

In 1979, the Association pushed the Charlotte City Council to support fair housing, which led to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fair Housing Ordinance.

1980s

The Association became a “Realtor®-only” organization in 1980. 

In the early ’80s, the Association’s Community Revitalization Committee bought and renovated four homes and gave them to the city to rent to low-income people.

In 1985, the MLS stepped up computerization by renting dumb-terminal workstations at $10 a month to member firms. Dumb terminals take or transcribe data but have little to no data processing ability.

Roy Currie, who had started in the Association’s print shop in the early 1970s, became CEO in 1986.

The Charitable Foundation, predecessor of today’s Canopy Housing Foundation, began in 1985. The Foundation raised $50,000 for Habitat for Humanity in 1987, including $22,000 from a reception attended by former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn.

Also in 1987, Alyce Walker became the first president elected by the membership, not appointed by the board of directors.

The Vane Mingle Award to honor the Association’s rookie of the year began in 1988.

1990s

Members numbered approximately 2,600 in 1990. The same year, NAR recognized the Association for having the highest percentage of politically active members among large boards in the country, at 26 percent.

The Association gave $50,000 in the early ’90s to help start UNC Charlotte’s master’s degree program in real estate. 

In 1991, the Association purchased a larger headquarters building at 1201 Greenwood Cliff and moved there two years later. 

The Association bought Mingle School of Real Estate in 1993 upon retirement of owners Vane and Margrette “Mike” Mingle.

Muriel Helms became the first woman to chair the Charlotte Chamber in 1995. She was Association president in 1985.

The Association became a staff-managed, rather than a volunteer-run organization, in 1995. 

Iredell County (including Alexander County except Wittenburg Township) became part of the Association and MLS in 1994, while Union, Lincoln, Cabarrus and Gaston counties joined the MLS from 1989 to the mid-1990s.

Carolinahome.com debuted as the Association’s website in 1996.

The MLS pivoted from frustrations with developing MLSConnect to installing the Maestro system in December 1998.

Bound MLS books went away in 1999 in favor of sharing listings by computer.

The Leadership Development Program (now the Leadership Academy) began in 1999.

Tim Minton became CEO in 1999 after Roy Currie left the previous year to enter real estate.

2000s

There were 4,137 members at the end of 2000.

Anne Marie Howard (now DeCatsye) became CEO in early 2001.

The Home Giveaway began in 2002 to promote homeownership among low and moderate income buyers. The Association won an Ambassadors for Cities Award for the program.

By late 2001, 98 percent of brokers in the MLS were participating with the Internet Data Exchange to share listings.

The MLS gained its own board of directors in January 2003.

The Affordable Housing Certificate Program started in 2003 and is now the Workforce Housing Certificate Program.

The MLS adopted an internet-based system called Tempo in August 2003.

To support real estate education, the Association contributed $250,000 to The Center for Real Estate at UNC Charlotte.

In the mid-2000s, the Association bought several nearby properties to bring the organization’s land to more than 5 acres.

The Association launched its first Realtor® advocacy campaign in 2005.

RPAC fundraising set records for dollars ($83,872) and donors (1,500) in 2005.

The Builder/Realtor® Fair became the Realtor® EXPO in 2007.

Basketball great Earvin “Magic” Johnson spoke at a 2006 Bank of America event that recognized the Association’s affordable housing efforts.

In 2006, members exceeded 8,000 and MLS subscribers hit 9,700. Both were records.

The Diversity Council began in 2007 with Roger Parham as the first chair. The same year, the MLS added Centralized Showing Service.

The Association hosted the state Realtors® convention in October 2008, showcasing the development of uptown since Charlotte had last hosted in 1995. 

The recession late in the decade yielded a slow market, membership declines and belt-tightening over several years starting in 2008.

Realtors® Care Day debuted in 2009, replacing the Home Giveaway and drawing more than 600 members to the inaugural effort.

2010s

In 2010, Mingle School instructor Gary Taylor received the Emeritus Award from the N.C. Real Estate Commission. The same year, the Association won another Ambassadors for Cities Award, this time for Realtor® Care Day.

Ginger Dowdle received the NAR Good Neighbor Award in 2012.

The Association spearheaded and helped fund 10 billboards supporting homeownership and the Realtor® brand during the 2012 Democratic Convention in Charlotte. 

The MLS shifted to the Matrix operating system in 2014 and a year later became the wholesale vendor for the N.C. Mountains MLS. In early 2018, the NCMMLS became part of the MLS.

The Association’s Board of Directors voted in 2014 to build a new headquarters on the Association’s property in Midtown.

RPAC raised record amounts three straight years: $103,324 in 2015, $127,375 in 2016 and $175,061 in 2017. The 2017 figure was a record for any association or region in North Carolina.

Mingle School instructor Cindy Chandler became chair of the N.C. Real Estate Commission in 2015. The same year, real estate leaders John Crosland Jr. and Allen Tate died within six weeks of each other in the summer.

The Foundation’s Strides for Shelter 5K and Project R.E.A.C.H. both started in 2016.

Roger Parham became the first African American president in 2017. Also that year, the MLS added a “Coming Soon” status.

Jason Gentry was the first out LGBTQ+ president in 2018. 

In spring 2018, the groundbreaking for the new HQ and the 10th annual Realtors® Care Day occurred.

The MLS became the wholesale vendor for Burke and Cleveland counties and Catawba Valley in 2018. Each area eventually would become part of the MLS.

Brenda Hayden was first African American female president in 2019. 

Also in 2019, the Association rebranded itself and its entities with the “Canopy” name and opened its new HQ at 1120 Pearl Park Way on July 15. 

The Association joined other groups as a major funder of a five-year study on housing in the Charlotte region, conducted by UNC Charlotte and beginning in 2019.

In 2019, Canopy MLS welcomed York, Chester and Lancaster counties to the fold and began using the MLS Grid for data feeds.

2020s (through early 2021)

The Haywood County Association of Realtors® merged with the Association on January 1, 2020.

The MLS staff added virtual showings and virtual open houses to both Matrix and ShowingTime as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Association closed its headquarters, tried to clarify stay-at-home orders with government officials and transitioned orientation sessions, institute classes, tech training and other meetings and events online. 

The NAR-mandated Clear Cooperation Policy rolled out on May 1, 2020, in Canopy MLS and by summer was reducing pocket listings in the low inventory market.

When social unrest erupted across the country in mid-2020, the Association issued a message to the community and President John Kindbom led a virtual town hall for members on this topic and the pandemic.

By late summer of 2020, the real estate market rebounded to sales levels higher than 2019. Overall, 2020 wound up topping 2019 in sales despite severe pandemic limits in the spring.

In 2020, the Foundation topped $500,000 in community grants since the program began in the late 2000s.

The Foundation’s 2020 Virtual Holiday Auction brought in a record $27,008.53 for the event.

In December 2020, contributions from Pearl Society members pushed the Foundation’s endowment over $1 million.

In 2021, the Association held a virtual Realtor® EXPO and other programs because of the pandemic, planned the launch of the Friends of the Pearl Society and scheduled a celebration for its 100th anniversary on December 10, 2021.